According to a survey conducted in the Journal of Social Psychology, listening quietly to a speaker can reduce social anxiety when the speaker is depressed.
Both in the media and in the scientific literature, the benefits of effective listening have been well-known. therapists use listening techniques to help patients feel secure and in charge of their careers as part of sales strategies. However, the science of listening and the techniques to improve it are still unclear.
Hadar Weis-Rappaport and Avraham N. Kluger conducted a study to assess a time-sharing technique. The listener remains silent but signals the listener by nodding or saying "mhm." This approach focuses on three areas of listening: paying attention to the speaker, and expressing non-judgment.
“I was surprised by the impact a brief conversation had on me when the listener was attentive and quiet,” said Kluger, the Hebrew University Business School Charles I. Rosen Chair of Business Administration.
The authors wanted to explore how time-sharing might affect people with different personalities in different ways. They suggested that time-sharing would lessen social anxiety among speakers with high levels of narcissism because they will likely enjoy being able to dominate the conversation uninterrupted. However, time-sharing might increase social anxiety among speakers with high levels of depression because they might interpret the listener's silence as social rejection.
A sample of 100 university students participated in a lab experiment where they were randomly divided into 50 pairs. The directions for both conditions were identical: one participant was instructed to talk for three minutes while the other listened, and the others were instructed to switch roles for the next three minutes. In the time-sharing condition, listeners were explicitly instructed to respond with facial expressions, nods, and "uh-huh."
Speakers answered questions about their social anxieties (e.g., "I was concerned about what the listener thought of me.") All participants completed tests of depression and narcissism.
The responses to the two conditions appeared to depend on their personalities. Speakers displayed lower social anxiety if they had high levels of narcissism, but higher social anxiety if they had high levels of depression. This suggests that time-sharing is beneficial for speakers with narcissism, but detrimental for those with depression.
Kluger said of these guidelines: 'don't interrupt.' 'Some speakers may prefer not to be interrupted, while others may appreciate interruptions as a sign of commitment,' according to other experts.
In the time-sharing situation, listeners with high levels of narcissism experienced heightened social anxiety, while speakers with high levels of narcissism experienced heightened social anxiety.
According to the authors, listening interventions may be influenced by the speaker's personality. "Listening and listening techniques, such as time-sharing, active listening, listening circles, and others, are often advocated by practitioners and researchers without considering the possibility of a connection between the technique and the speaker's personality," according to Weis-Rappaport and Kluger.
The authors argue that it was difficult to test whether time sharing would affect its effects. In future research, it might be possible to examine the best duration of time sharing for positive outcomes.
"Our sample size is quite small, and the participants may have little experience with being listened to," Kluger said. "Further research, including a larger sample and participants who have received training in listening, is required to verify the validity of our findings."
"Listening research often overlooks that the effectiveness of a listener's behavior may depend on the personalities of both the speaker and the listener and their dynamic. A deeper understanding of how personalities play a role in successful communication might lead to more efficient methods of fostering productive conversations."
Hadar Weis-Rappaport and Avraham N. Kluger contributed to the research 'Time-sharing' effects on psychological safety and social anxiety.
